Nairobi closes deal to beat congestion

Heavy traffic in Nairobi is almost a daily occurrence but a new deal will soon unlock this situation.

A Netherlands company has been selected to supply buses in an ambitious project that seeks to transform public transport in the capital city.

VDL Bus & Coach held a meeting with Nairobi City County engineers last month to finalise the deal.

“Your idea of introducing buses and articulated bus transit in Nairobi is brilliant and it will go a long way in decongesting the city,” says Evans Ondieki, the county executive committee member in charge of transport in a letter dated March 17, this year.

The company had previously written to the county with an offer to supply buses under the Belgian soft credit grant scheme.

“VDL Bus & Coach sees the project as follows: Delivery of buses and services under the Belgian scheme in parallel with local assembly/manufacturing of needed buses with a local partner, including transfer of technology for bus rapid transit,” reads the letter from the company dated March 6, this year.

The envisaged buses will have the capacity of 62 seated passengers and about 20 standing travellers. They will also have a provision for persons with disability and priority sections to cater for women with babies.

“The low-floor construction makes it exceptionally easy to enter the bus and offers optimal access for passengers with a baby buggy or wheelchair, for example,” reads a statement on the company’s website.

According to Mr Ondieki, the project will see the first batch of 200 buses arrive in July.

The consignment is set to be sourced through a Sh1 billion grant, which translates to about Sh5 million per bus.

“These will be deployed in various parts of the city and will cost a passenger Sh35 per trip,” Mr Ondieki noted, adding that the buses would also operate with specific standard time intervals to ensure order in the capital.

The project seeks to serve the 140 destinations within the city and ease congestion that has seen delays, especially during the rush-hour in the morning and evening.

Mr Ondieki said VDL Bus & Coach is among three firms that had expressed an interest in supplying Nairobi County with buses.

The other two were Volvo and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation.

“We are going for VDL Bus & Coach because it is offering an immediate solution to ease congestion within the city,” added Mr Ondieki.

The project has, however, met protests from a section of the county leadership, which has called for scrutiny of the entire deal.

According to an earlier report by Nairobi News, Makongeni ward representative Peter Imwatoka told the county assembly that there was a need to scrutinise the deal to rule out any mischief.

However, Mr Ondieki dismissed the protests saying it was aimed at sabotaging development. He insisted that the plan would go on.